Our Generation
by BeatlesFan92
Summary: AU During the 1960's, two people form an unlikely friendship that goes on for decades. It eventually leads to love, heartache and one destroyed family.


**A/N: Alright, so I've been wanting to write this story for a very long time, but until now, I never really had the motivation to do it. But here I am, finally writing it! This is also my first story, so I'm hoping you all will like it and give it a chance. **

**It's definitely an AU story, and probably a little OOC, as well. I'm obsessed with the 1960's, and that's the main time period that is used in this story. I would say it's a D/L story, but there's a lot of other couples as well, and a lot of new characthers that aren't from the show. And not everyone from the show is in this story, just to warn you. The first two chapters start off a little slow, but it's just to set up everything else. And once again, I really hope you give this a chance! So now, on with the story...**

_This was going to be the summer from Hell. _

That thought kept racing through Stephanie's mind as the plane she was on got even closer to the Kansas City airport. She couldn't believe that she would be spending her entire summer in some random Kansas town. An entire summer away from her home, away from her friends. An entire summer in the middle of nowhere, wasting away the time with her grandmother, of all people. A grandmother whome Stephanie hardly even knew.

How had she gotten stuck with these terrible vacation plans?

It was her ad's fault she was in this situation. He was the one who had decided to travel Europe that summer with his new wife, Emma. When he had told Stephanie his travel plans, she had been estatic. A summer of touring vineyards in Italy, roaming the English countryside and wandering the streets of Paris. What could be better than that? It was after Stephanie had pulled her suitcases out of the closet when her dad dropped the bombshell on her. Yes, she would be needing those suitcases, but not for traveling Europe like she had originally thought.

"Emma and I need some time alone," he had explained, "and since you're definitely not staying here alone, I figured you could stay with your grandma this summer."

Stephanie's jaw had dropped in shock. It wasn't the fact that she wasn't going to Europe that had shocked her. It was her dad's choice of who she would stay with that caused her so much surprise. She had asked why she couldn't stay at her uncle's house in Los Angeles or even her aunt's place in Chicago. Apparently both of them were conveniently busy with their own families that summer. Her dad had then taken the moment to remidn her again how lonely her grandmother is.

The thought that had been bothering Stephanie ever since that conversation three weeks before was why her dad suddenly cared about her grandmother and her lonlieness. It wasn't as if her dad and grandmother were close. In fact, the only person in the family who was close to her grandmother was an aunt who, just like her grandmother, Stephnaie hardly knew. She knew that her name was Lucy, she lived in London, and she was the youngest daugher of her grandmother, but that was about it. The last time she had seen either one of them had been when Stephanie was six years old. It was right after her grandfather had died and all she remembered was a huge fight between the adults. Neither Stephanie or any of her cousins knew what it was about, and they still didn't.

Now, for the first time in ten years, she would be seeing her grandmother again. She wondered if the events from ten years ago would be mentioned. She highly doubted it. If her father and uncle and aunt wouldn't talk about it, then why would her grandma?

"For those of you sitting on the right side of the plane, if you look out the window you'll get a wonderful view of the city."

Stephanie glanced out the window and rolled her eyes at what the flight attendant had called "the city". It was nothing but a small town to her, especially since she was from the one and only city: New York. If that small cluster of buildings was what they called a city, then Stephanie couldn't even begin to imagine what the "town" where her grandmother lived was like. For some reason, she kept imagining a farm. That was probably because of the fact that she had seen The Wizard of Oz a thousand times when she was a kid so whenever she thought of Kansas, she thought of Dorothy and the farm she lived on. And if her grandmother really did live on a farm, then the town was probably miles away and it probably only consisted of a small grocery store, a bar, a gas station, a few shops and maybe a McDonalds. Stephanie shuddered at the thought of farms and tiny towns where she would be trapped for two months. This really was going to the a hellish summer.

Stephanie had been right about there being a McDonalds in town. However, she was definitely wrong about everything else. Where she would be staying was nothing like what she had seen from The Wizard of Oz. It was what she assumed was typical suburbia. There were strip malls, nice schools, restaurants and the perfectly laid out neighborhoods where children could roam freely with the other neighborhood kids. It wasn't the country and it wasn't exactly a small town, but it was still so different compared to where Stephanie was from. She could tell that at night, there would be silence, something that she wasn't used to. Even the daytime would be a lot quieter than outside of her Manhattan apartment. Instead of the sounds of the city with it's sirens, people shouting and car horns honking, she'd probably only hear the sounds of children laughing and the occasional ice cream truck. This atmosphere was definitely something that would take some time to adjust to. From what she had seen during the drive from the airport so far, the place didn't look so bad.

She knew that she should probably be talking more during the drive to make things less awkward, but she honestly didn't know what to say. Her grandmother had greeted her at the airport with a huge smile and had pulled her into a loving embrace. It was clear that she was happy to have Stephanie there, but after ten years of not seeing each other, it was just so strange. For the first ten minutes of the drive, she had asked Stephanie questions, but when she realized she was only getting one word responses, she remained silent. Stephanie was thankful for the silence and that was when she had observed her new surroundings. She also took a moment to observe her grandmother. Unlike her other grandma, who had passed away the year before at the age of eighty-nine, this woman was young. Well, younger than eighty-nine, at least. She looked to be in her sixties. She was petite and had a cute, modern haircut. Her hair was a light brown color, which Stephanie assumed was dyed to give her a younger look. And she had gorgeous chocolate brown eyes. She looked and seemed like a very kind woman, the total opposite of what she had gotten from her father had described over the years. That made her wonder once again what had happened to tear the family apart.

Just as Stephanie was about to casually bring up the events from ten years ago, her grandmother pulled the car into a driveway. She turned off the ignition and smiled brightly at her.

"Here we are!" she said cheerfully. Stephanie looked at her grandmother, then she looked at the house. It looked old and worn, but at the same time, it looked like a decent place to stay. It was a one story, ranch-style house. The lawn was large and well manicured and the two tall trees gave plenty of shade. As she stepped out of the car, she noticed that the rest of the neighborhood looked about the same. Oh yes, she was definitely in the suburbs.

"You know, I lived in this house when it was brand new," her grandmother mentioned as she helped Stephanie with her bags. "I remember when it was being built, and I remember the day we moved in. It was 1958, I believe. The entire neighborhood was brand new. Most of the people moving in were young couples starting their lives together. Most of them didn't even have children yet. But there were the families who decided the city wasn't the place to be and they just picked up and moved out here. My family was one of those families. I'd been living in the city when one day my father says, "Let's move to the suburbs! Everyone's doing it!". So we picked everything up and moved out here to have a better life."

Stephanie nodded and smiled as she listened to her grandmother ramble on about the suburbs while trying to unlock the front door. Once she finally got the door unlocked, she allowed Stephanie to enter the house first. When she did, she felt as if she had just stepped into the past. Everything, from the furniture to the tv in the living room, looked like it belonged in the 1950's and 1960's.

"Most of the stuff in this house has been here since 1958," she heard her grandmother say.

"Does the tv even work?" Stephanie asked.

"Yes, but it only gets three channels." Stephanie turned around quickly and stared at her grandmother as if she was crazy, to which her grandmother laughed. "I'm only joking. I get almost every channel imaginable. And there's a new flatscreen in the basement. It's got that fancy HD thing goin' on. If I'm going to keep up with the Kardashians, then I have to be able to watch them in high quality!"

Stephanie let out a small laugh as she felt relief wash through her. She wasn't going to be totally stuck in the stone age.

"Now come on, dear. Let me show you to your room. The room you're staying in was actually my room when I lived here as a teenager. It's a nice room and I'm sure you'll love it. There's plenty of closet space to put your clothes and whatever else it is you want to store. Oh, I'm just so glad you're here! We're going to have a great summer together, aren't we?"

All Stephanie could do was nod in response.


End file.
